Minnesota Mascot Goldy, Breakfast Cereal Spokes…Gopher?

How am I just now learning General Mills launched a series of advertisements for Reese’s Puff Cereal starring Goldy, the Minnesota mascot? Pertinent information here, people.

My Friday afternoons are typically spent mindlessly bouncing around YouTube deep in research. Today, the below clip showcasing both the Minnesota mascot and the Golden Gophers’ locker room pre-rolled. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was seeing.

Some quick Googling led me to discover two more advertisements featuring Goldy, these co-starring NC State mascot Mr. Wuf and Oklahoma’s Boomer.

The ad campaign apparently launched in late August, coinciding with the start of the college football season. The connection between the cereal company and the Golden Gophers should be obvious to anyone who remembers commercials during early 1990s cartoons. General Mills would occasionally advertise prize giveaways, soliciting box tops to a Minneapolis-area P.O. Box.

The connection to NC State and Oklahoma, on the other hand? Someone will have to clue me in on that. Tweet @cfbhuddle and there might be something in it for you. Think of it like a box-top giveaway!

Breakfast cereals, pizza joints and toys covered the bulk of commercial breaks in those days. Given our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic, I appreciate General Mills’ strategy of targeting college students — and, quite frankly, I’d imagine it’s a more receptive market.

Who among us didn’t live off of cereal for a stretch in college? I certainly needed no added motivation to load up on cereal in my undergraduate days. That said, I would have bought boxes like a paranoid doomsday prepper had a cereal company showcased my university’s mascot in an ad campaign.

Moral of the story? I’d probably find the endless stream of one-day fantasy ads more palatable if the jersey-wearing nimrods were replaced with hilarious and/or adorable college mascots.